"This is a Panzerschrek soldier. He is armed with a Raketenpanzerbuchse 54 and will go for your tanks and vehicles."

— Official game quote

The Panzerschreck (not the mod!) is the Wehrmacht German Bazooka unit. He is extremely powerful, but inaccurate, and it will take him a little while to aim.

His job is to blow up your vehicles soon after he enters the battlefield. Due to his bad accuracy, and rocket trajectory, sometimes he will miss, which grants you a large advantage - his fire rate is quite slow, giving you time to turn him into Swiss cheese before he will be ready to fire again. If there aren't any vehicles on the battlefield he will target your infantry, which can be dangerous if he hits your trenches or bunkers, or other important buildings such as the Antenna. The panzerschreck has the capabilities to destroy your bunkers if it hits the center (the most vulnerable part) of them.

In older game versions the panzerschreck was to be feared, they would shoot and hit anything. But they, along with the Land Mattress and bazooka have now been nerfed down to a reasonable level.

Real Life

Panzerschreck was the popular name for Raketenpanzerbüchse (abbreviated to RPzB). In 1941, when the Germans encountered the new Soviet tank designs such as the T-34, they quickly discovered the effectiveness of the high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) round against this new threat. The need of a more effective infantry anti-tank weapon than the Panzerbüchse 39 (PzB 39) anti-tank rifles was paramount for the German army.

Development for a weapon using the HEAT principle quickly ensued. The first development was a converted anti-tank grenade launcher version of the P.z.b 39 anti-tank rifle called the G.z.b 39. Further development created the Faustpatrone and later the Panzerfaust which were highly effective against Allied armor, but lacked the range and multi-purpose nature of the 2.36-inch (60mm) M1A1 "Bazooka". German troops captured many Allied bazookas in North Africa as well as some lend-lease versions on the Eastern front. The German army quickly developed an enlarged German version of the M1A1 Bazooka, the Raketenpanzerbüchse, which used a bigger 88 mm round and had double the penetrative performance. It proved itself against Allied armor on all fronts, earning the nickname "tank terror" which is also the literal translation for Panzerschreck. German soldiers nicknamed it Ofenrohr (stovepipe) due to its appearance and the amount of smoke it generated.